Heart of the warrior
by redheadturkey
Summary: Sephiroth was in only ONE part of the game, but he had a purpose. This is the story of his mission as seen through the eyes of an Earth woman that came to Olympia after Earth fell to the Heartless.
1. Default Chapter

Heart of the warrior  
  
A Kingdom hearts fanfiction  
  
By Diane Kelley  
  
The woman looked up as the darkness swallowed her apartment building, abject terror etched on her fine-boned face as it tore her away from her family, her five year old daughter and three year old son screaming "Mommy!" as it slowly enveloped her, then her husband and children shortly after.   
  
Diane shook the fuzziness out of her head as she woke up in strange yet somehow familiar surroundings, her red waves bouncing a bit. Above her was a handsome face, with clear blue eyes peering down at her, the man's ever-present smile glued to his face.  
  
"Hello, Hercules. . . "She said drolly. "And don't ask how I know who you are, I'm from Earth . . . we have so many legends I could probably repeat the entire Olympian pantheon in exact order."  
  
The young demi-god shook his head slowly at the Earth-woman who had suddenly landed herself in his home. 'The Heartless found your world as well. They are spreading even faster than Father feared." Then, he shook his head, and stated the obvious. "You seem rather upset, ma'am."  
  
"It's Diane, and I'm beyond upset. I'm pissed as Hell! I lost my home, my family, Hell, my entire damn world! And because of a problem some idiot around here who couldn't contain his curiosity enough to keep his fucking hands to himself caused! I'd think you'd be pretty upset, too, if they ripped through YOUR home."  
  
She snorted, then caught a flash of black leather from the corner of her eye, and cocked a thumb in that direction. "So, Nut head is here, too, I see."  
  
A deep voice echoed from the darkened corner of the stadium. "Yes, 'Nut head', as you so eloquently said, is here, as well." A pair of large, slanted cat-like eyes glowing an eerie green pinned her from the shadows, then she looked up to see the slender yet strong form of the silver-haired former General as he stepped into the full light. He smirked at her "You have a problem with that?"  
  
"None at all, just remind me not to fall in love with you. . .the last person who did ended up dead."  
  
An answering smirk tipped the right corner of her mouth up slightly, then it raised her eyebrow up as emphasis. She wanted him to believe she was not a bit afraid of him, when in truth she was shaking inside like a leaf. "Not like that is a possibility. . .My main goal is to find Mike and my kids and get the Hell outta this shithole."   
  
Sephiroth quirked a slight grin at the woman who looked up at him with her gem-like blue eyes full of fire, not even a trace of fear in her countenance, though he knew she was likely terrified. "I'd like to get out of this shithole, too, but that's not an option for me." With that, he brushed a wayward lock of gleaming hair out of his face, turned, and strode off.  
  
Diane turned back to Herc, muttering something about "Rude frickin' nutters" as she watched him stalk off over her shoulder. 


	2. Changing Hearts

"Hey, don't be so rough on him. When he came here, he WAS pretty crazy, yeah, but things have changed. Give him a chance, and you may just find someone who understands how you feel more than you think."

She sighed, knowing he was likely right, but not yet willing to admit it. "Can we just figure out where I'm staying, what I'm going to do while I'm here, please? Let's just get ON with it, already!"

Herc nodded, blond waves bouncing a bit as he did so.  

So it happened that Diane was sitting next to the stadium in her own box, a variety of herbal remedies and a small assortment of needles and suture materials in front of her. It had been decided (By Philocetes, of course) that since she had first aid training and a gentle touch, she would be the designated nurse for the Coliseum. 

Diane knew what arena matches were about, having studied her own world's history well, but it still didn't prepare her for the blood that got spilled there. With each match she shrank just a bit more inside herself. Then, a match she'd not been expecting to see came.

The boy on one side of the arena looked to be no more than maybe 14, his hair a dark chestnut and tossed about his face in wild spikes, his eyes a crisp blue that were hardened into chips by determination. His name was Sora, and he was called the Keybearer by everyone who had heard of him. He was the only hope of all worlds, this she knew, even as isolated as she was here. A portal ripped open the sky above the arena as the boy's opponent entered. 

Diane took a quick, sharp breath in then. She had never seen him fight before, not in all the time she'd been here, around 2 months or so now. In fact, she'd rarely seen him at ALL since the day she arrived, aside from a few sneers from him in passing. She knew she'd been wrong, and had tried to do what she could to apologize, but for good reason, he was not the most forgiving of people.

The silver hair flowed to his waist, almost as if it was spun from the precious metal itself, and his emerald eyes glowed in an almost eerie manner. Sephiroth motioned the boy to come to him, spreading his single wing, its iridescent black feathers reminiscent of a raven's, gleaming in the sun. 

Sora nodded.

Diane recalled as they met the boy's battle with Cloud the month before, how the blond warrior had not even LOOKED at the one battling now after the battle, though they had been forced to co-exist for nearly a year in this place.  She knew there was a bad history between the two, knew what it was, even, as their story had been told by a game in her world. 

Strange thing was, instead of hating Seph for his crimes in that world, she understood him. She knew how it felt to be the outsider, the one no one ever understood because they never took the time to look deeper than their first impressions. 

She was ripped from her thoughts by a collective gasp that rang through the entire crowd.  The greatest swordsman ANY of the worlds had ever seen had fallen to the young keyblade bearer. 

Phil approached Diane as fast as his short Satyr legs would carry him, urgency in his face. "Di, you need to help him. If he doesn't make it. .." Phil shuddered, unable to even NAME the consequence of that.

"I patch people here up, yeah, Phil, but it's usually just minor bumps and scrapes." She looked out to see the stadium housemen bringing the fallen silver-maned fighter into the locker room.  His face was normally a pale color anyway, almost snow-white, but the skin had a sallow tone to it, and he held his hand over a wound in his belly that seeped, the blood coming from between his fingers, his mouth and brows drawn tight in obvious pain.  "I'm no surgeon."

Phil looked at her then, eyes dark with worry, as Hercules came over. "Then I guess we're all doomed." The demi-god's voice was almost toneless as he spoke


	3. Heart of fire

Diane sighed. "I'll do the best I can. But tell me, what's so important about him anyway? Yeah, I know life in itself is precious, but why his? Why does so much hinge on HIS life?"

Herc explained it as best he could while they walked into the back. "You know how the doors between worlds are open now, right? Well, this world has become a waystation of sorts, a place where the refugees can feel safe and recover. It was that way until OUR keyhole opened. Sephiroth has come to see this place as his home, and the LAST thing he wanted to see was it being swallowed in darkness. He connected himself with the gate, and has been using his own life-force to keep it closed. If he dies, it will fly open, and darkness will take anyone who survives Olympia's fall."

Diane nodded, seeing suddenly a new side to this one who had once been mad. But she sensed the young one was not telling her EVERYTHING. 

She stepped into the locker room, threading a needle with some of the surgical cording she had been given as she did so. She bent over the man, setting a hand on his cheek. 

"This is going to be painful, and I am sorry. You're so weakened already I don't think we can risk an anesthetic."

Sephiroth nodded, grunting out "Just get on with it." between gasping breaths that became more and more labored. He bit his lip as the needle pierced his flesh for the first time, the bite of it felt deep inside as the girl began repairing the organs that had been damaged in the fight.  Then, he let forth a loud cry before passing out.

Diane felt him go limp beneath her, almost relieved that he'd passed out. She hated causing pain, even to heal.  As she completed the repair to the best of her ability, she draped a blanket over him, brushing a strand of silver hair from his face before turning to go. "I almost could have loved you . . . if it weren't for prior obligations."

Cloud stood in the doorway then, and the missing piece of the puzzle clicked into place, that  which Herc hadn't told her. Her anger spilled over then, at the smirk on Cloud's face. His voice rang out then.

"You gonna take a chance on the pretty-boy, are you? You do realize what happened to the LAST woman that did that?"

Diane whirled on the blond, fury written clearly on her features, blue eyes sparking. 

"You don't understand what he's going through, do you? On top of the grief of losing the only person he gave a SHIT about, he has to live with the GUILT of knowing he is the one who destroyed her. Not that you give a shit, Strife. and another thing. . .whether you realize it or not, he is using his own LIFE FORCE to keep that damn keyhole sealed so we have ONE safe world left until Sora's ready to fight. Think about THAT next time you open your fucking mouth." and with that she walked away, red hair lifting in the slight breeze, leaving Cloud standing open-mouthed in shock. Then she turned back with the final blow. "Oh, and in case you didn't know . . . he's doing his damndest to prepare the boy for the battle to come . . . even though he knows when Sora wins, it means his own death."


	4. The heart won't lie

Cloud lifted one fine blond brow as she turned and walked out to the lobby, watching her tell Phil she'd done all she could, and it looked like he'd pull through, THIS time.

"Phil?" 

The red-haired goat-man turned as he heard the Earth-woman's voice call his name. 

"Yeah, what ya need?"

Diane looked down, then looked back up, looking straight into his eyes. "Is he going to live through the locking of the Heart of Worlds? Somehow I had this feeling Hercules wasn't telling me something when he explained Seph's situation. Please, be truthful with me."

Phil looked down, as well, cursing inwardly at the woman's intuitiveness.  "No, he won't. I told Herc not ta tell ya, because I could see you were startin' ta like him, and I didn't want ya ta get hurt. I also wanted him to have some kind of enjoyment out of what time he's got left."

Diane swore quietly. "How could you do that? You know me fairly well by now, and you know I hate being coddled. You also know I hate being lied to. And why didn't HE tell me?"

"Because he didn't wanna hurt ya, either. He's beginning to like you, too."

Diane huffed and walked away, but as soon as she was out of sight, the tears came.  She walked back to the room where Sephiroth had been taken after she patched him up, and seeing no one was there, laid next to him, placing her head on his chest.  She sniffled as she just silently cried and listened to that precious thudding sound of that great heart beating, one that she knew would all too soon be stilled. 


	5. Faith of the Heart

Chapter 5: Faith of the Heart Note: capitals are thoughts, and ~ indicate a flashback. *indicate music.*  
  
OK, I know I forgot the disclaimers in the first four chapters, here goes: I do not own any of the characters from the game Kingdom Hearts Sony/Squaresoft/Enix and Disney do. I am just borrowing them for a bit, and will return them to their proper places when done.  
  
Sephiroth moaned, opening his green eyes for a moment, and felt the weight on his chest.. He looked down to see a mass of red curls. It was the woman who had called him "nut head" when she had first arrived. . .and the one who had just finished stitching the deep wound Sora had caused during that last battle. He lifted an eyebrow, noting the irony of this woman whose goal was to find her family ending up like this. "Little one . . .why did you have to fall for me? All anyone who loves me gets is pain, heartache, or dead." He ran his fingers through that flame-red hair, sighing. He'd never truly experienced love before. Now that he had, he wasn't quite sure what to do about it. It wasn't as if he had any future with Diane even if he were going to survive the final battle. She had a husband and children to return to when it was all finished. He smiled as the radio softly played into the room. He knew Di missed her home, and having the music made her feel better. But this song put his heart into his throat, remembering the last time he'd heard it.  
  
~Diane sighed, looking up at Phil. "What the Hell is there to do in this place during your off hours? I haven't seen a bar or any sort of entertainment at all here."  
  
Phil grinned. "Actually, Herc set up a karaoke stand in the arena for the weekends. I heard ya singing once, yer good. If ya want, you can come and perform."  
  
She nodded with a bright smile. "You know it."  
  
That night she climbed up onto the stage, it was still fairly slow. She nodded at Phil, as he popped the disc into the machine. She began to sway as the first few bars began to float from the speakers.  
  
* When you walk away You don't hear me say please Oh baby, don't go Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight It's hard to let it go*  
  
Seph heard that voice, clear, like a nightingale's singing, and walked inside out of curiosity. He'd seen Herc's karaoke parties before, but since most of the singers were so drunk by the time they got up on the stage that they had no voice left, he'd never really been interested. There, on the stage, stood the red-haired woman that had met him with such contempt when she'd come the previous month. He was blown away by the beauty and clarity of that voice, and how she put her whole heart into the song.  
  
* You're giving me too many things Lately you're all I need You smiled at me and said,  
  
Don't get me wrong I love you But does that mean I have to meet your father? When we are older you'll understand What I meant when I said "No, I don't think life is quite that simple"*  
  
He sighed. She was right, life wasn't as simple as all that. There were a million times he'd wished it was.  
  
* When you walk away You don't hear me say please Oh baby, don't go Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight It's hard to let it go.  
  
The daily things that keep us all busy Are confusing me That's when you came to me and said,  
  
Wish I could prove I love you But does that mean I have to walk on water? When we are older you'll understand It's enough when I say so And maybe some things are that simple.*  
  
It seemed as if she looked straight at him then, blue eyes sparking with tears. Then she walked off, unable to finish, brushing by him as she was too embarrassed to even know what to say. ~  
  
"I wish I had told you then how I felt, Little one," he sighed after saying that in a voice still weakened and gravelly. "But something tells me you already knew."  
  
And his voice lifted with the bridge.  
  
* ** Hold me  
Whatever lies beyond this morning  
Is a little later on  
Regardless of warnings the future doesn't scare me at all  
Nothing's like before*  
  
And he realized the truth of it. . .he wasn't afraid anymore of what he knew the future held. He was going to die when all of this was said and done, but he no longer feared it. For it meant his Little One would be safe and happy again, with her husband and her children where she truly belonged. 


	6. all of me

Chapter 6  
All of Me  
  
Diane woke to fingers entangled in her hair, ones encased in black leather. The radio was still playing. ..she was guessing Sephiroth had neglected to turn it off before dozing off with his fingers twined in her hair. She closed her eyes as she recognized the song playing.  
  
~I'm so tired of being here suppressed by all of these childish fears. If you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave. Your presence still lingers here, and it won't leave me alone.~  
  
How frightened she had been when she arrived. A whole new world was around her that she didn't understand. But when she had seen him, despite knowing who he was and what he'd done, she'd had to smile. He was familiar to her in a way few could comprehend. And his presence still stuck with her, even though she knew he'd soon be gone. It would forever linger.  
  
~These wounds won't seem to heal. this pain is just too real, there's just too much that time cannot erase. When you cried, I'd wipe away all of your tears, when you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears. I held your hand through all of these years yet you still have. ..all of me.~  
  
BUT I SHOULDN'T FEEL THIS WAY. ..MIKE LOVES ME. ..MY KIDS NEED ME, Diane sighed as that thought rang through her mind. BUT I CAN'T HELP BUT WANT TO HOLD HIM WITH ME FOREVER. . .HE DESERVES TO BE LOVED AFTER ALL THE CRAP LIFE HAS THROWN AT HIM.  
  
~You used to captivate me with your resonating life. . .~  
  
She thought again of how bright his smile had been more than once, that smile he turned on those who he considered friends. It was beautiful, taking up his whole face, making his green eyes dance, so full of life.  
  
~But now I'm bounded by the life you left behind. Your face it haunts, my most pleasant dreams. Your voice it chased away, all the sanity in me.~  
  
Then his face as he walked through the flame pops into her mind. . .it wasn't something she'd experienced personally, yet she still knew how horrible it was. ..his face, drawn into a smirk, yet behind that smirk was an anguish so few could understand. She understood, for she had been in a place equally as dark at one point in her life.  
  
A groan echoed beneath her head, one which indicated he was waking up. "Di. ..you still here?"  
  
"Yeah. .. do you mind if I stay here just a little bit longer?" She snuggled down into the wide chest.  
  
He shook his head, lips curving up into a softer version of the smile she knew so well now. "Not a bit." 


End file.
